LCN is a joint venture between UCL, IC, and KC, comprising over 200 staff members, 20 spinout companies, and producing more than 400 publications annually in the field of nanotechnology.

UCL LCN is an independent research department. Its core technologies include the LCN cleanroom, the Fib lab, and the AFM lab.

The focus will then be on the six FIB/SEM and EBL (Electron Beam Lithography), over 10 million pounds national facilities, including their resolutions, typical images, and especially how they can be managed without service contract support, examples will be demonstrated how innovative maintenance can lead to improved performance at minimized and efficient cost by saving about £300,000 annually.

Successfully developed ECCI in the 20-year-old Zeiss XB1540 Fib/Sem. ECCI has supported over 10 research projects including the four publications I involved that to be presented.

Dr. Suguo Huo has been the Head of the LCN FIB Laboratory and the Technical Manager for LCN Electron/Ion Beam systems since joining LCN in 2009. He has managed six electron/ion beam multimillion pounds national facilities without service contracts, saving over £300,000 annually, and supports LCN nano-fabrication down to 5 nm, as well as sub-nanometer characterization for more than 100 users. He has authored about 60 publications and patents. While working as a postdoctoral researcher in Bristol before joining Seagate in 2000, he discovered the first anomalous scaling in experiments, which was published in Physical Review Letters (PRL) and subsequently cited and followed by over 170 publications, including 10 PRLs. He developed a method to obtain the first undisturbed magnetic force microscopy (MFM) image using a 3D micromagnetic modelling code he created and was awarded the Brunton Medal, recognizing his 10 first-author publications during his Ph.D. studies at Sheffield (1994–1997). During his Master’s degree studies at the Institute of Physics (1982–1986), he discovered the Bloch line chain breakdown critical temperature, which was presented as an invited report at an international conference and for which he received multiple awards.

He is a well-recognized expert in magnetics and focused ion beam (FIB) technology, having held the position of Senior Staff Engineer at Seagate Technology from 2000 to 2009. He led Seagate's FIB, TEM/STEM, and magnetic metrology team, making key contributions to the development and implementation of giant magnetoresistance (GMR) and tunnelling magnetoresistance (TMR) readers, as well as perpendicular recording technology. He resolved the long-standing FIB matching issue and increased FIB uptime from 40% to 90%. Additionally, he introduced, qualified, and implemented the world’s first industry TEM (STEM) for TMR reader characterization and successfully transferred the process to Seagate in the USA.